“Guard!” Xander shouts at a man a few inches shorter than him with short blond hair. “What is your order?”
“I invited them here.” My breath catches in my throat at his voice, that feeling of dread squeezing more tightly as the king walks in next, followed by Simon and men I recognize frommy forced dinners with the king but whose names I cannot remember.
“Your Majesty,” Xander says, bowing deeply. I don’t join him. “What is the meaning of all of this?”
“This”—he waves his hand to the guards behind us and the men seated near the throne—“is about showing what happens when you hurt something that ismine.” Each of his steps are measured, just as they had been before he killed Alexi. Like they had been when he would taunt me before hitting me in the tower. He walks to the center of the room and stops, while Simon and the rest of the men continue to the far wall, where rows of benches staggered in height like this is some sort of stadium and they are here to enjoy a spectacle.
The doors to the room close, the sound making my stomach sink. King Dolian’s gaze bores into mine as he reaches a hand out to me.
“Come, darling. Let’s show my men who youreallyare.”
Chapter Seventy-Two: Rhea
“Comenow,Rhea,thisis a time of celebration!” he shouts, eyes growing wide as I continue to ignore his outstretched hand.
“Lady Nele,” I counter, curling my fingers in to hide the way they tremble. “Isn’t that who I am supposed to be now?”
My uncle’s façade slips, his smile cracking as his true nature peeks through. “Everyone here already knows who you are. These guards? Given blood oaths to not speak a word to anyone.” His hand sweeps grandly over the line of men that stand along the wall. “And these ones? My council?” he says, turning to facethe men sitting on the benches. “Well, they hold no objections to my want of you.”
I scowl as I look at them, heat flaring at my chest and rising up my neck.Is this true? I want to ask.Are you truly alright with your king marrying his niece?And maybe I look poised to ask just that because, abruptly, King Dolian’s grip is on my arm, tight and unforgiving as he pulls me hard enough to spin me around, my hands planting on his chest.
“If you are looking for someone to save you, I’m afraid you’ll find our company lacking. There is no one coming for you, Rhea. No one who cares whether you live or die or who you fuck or what crown you wear.” His eyes flare as the skin beneath his short beard flushes red. “There is onlyme.”
“And yet you willneverbe enough.”
Still clutching my arm, he slams his opposite palm across my cheek, snapping my head to the side. My legs wobble beneath me as ringing fills my ears, my vision hazy and eyes watering. King Dolian pulls me closer, my shoulder hitting his chest as his lips brush against my temple. “You thinktheywill help you?” I look to the men, that void inside of me growing when I see Simon, his hand propped against his jaw and that sadistic gleam in his eyes that I knew all too intimately. He and the others sit and watch, varying degrees of enjoyment playing across their faces. “He’s not coming,” King Dolian whispers, breath hot on my skin. “Just as easily as he gained his interest in you, he lost it the moment you left him. Like the vermin he is, he’s already moved on to the next most appetizing thing.”
I grit my teeth together, drawing up invisible shields as if they can save me from invisible arrows. But the king has already laid his traps in my mind, and I blindly step into them. One right after the other.Nox not answering the Mirror. Nox not being in Vitour when I returned. Nox not wanting me. Nox moving on.
King Dolian’s fingers grip my chin and tilt my head up roughly, forcing me to look in his hazel eyes. “It’s time to earn your title, darling. Bring in the prisoner!” he shouts, making me jump.
I spin out of his hold to look as the doors to the room open again, and two guards haul the slumped man through. His head hangs heavily between his shoulders, blood—old and new—stains his bare chest. The scent of sweat is thick in the air when they force him to his knees in front of us. This was Sterling, the guard who would have killed me were it not for my magic. I attempt to step backwards, but only manage to bump into the king.
“Commander, hand Lady Rhea a dagger,” King Dolian commands.
My eyes widen as I look from Sterling to Xander, a breath trapped in my chest. His face is completely placid, devoid of any emotion. And, yet, he still asks, “Your Majesty?”
“Give the lady one of your daggers.Now.”
“Your Majesty, I don’t know that giving her a weapon—”
King Dolian releases me to stalk towards Xander, reaching for one of the blades stored on his belt. “Let me remind you,Commander, that I do not have you here because I value your opinion. You are muscle to do my bidding.Nothingmore.” He pulls a large dagger free, and though Xander tracks the movement, he doesn’t intercept.
The king turns towards me, spinning the blade gracefully until the hilt faces me. “Take the weapon, Rhea.”
There is no magic behind his words, so I shake my head, blood rushing in my ears as I struggle to speak over my racing heart. “You’re insane,” I whisper, swallowing the urge to scream. “Whatever this is, I will havenopart in it.”
“Do you truly think you have a choice?” he bellows, his intensity knocking loose a new thread of fear within me. Thereis only so much one person—onemind—can endure before it crumbles completely. My nightmares already bleed into my reality. My dreams are no longer a place of refuge but just another way for me to hurt. Over and over again, I have been pummeled by my uncle’s rage and jealousy and lust, reduced to nothing but a collection of mismatched rubble, never to be fit together again. Never to bewhole.
Yet I recognize that, throughallof that, I have remained. I have persevered, sometimes against my will. Has it all been just for this? Just to add another scar on top of an already unrecognizable body?
King Dolian faces the guards who stand as impassively now as they did when they entered the room. “This is the man who attempted tokillyour future queen. He viciously attacked her in her bedroom, and were it not for the quick actions of the healers, she would be dead! She is owed vengeance, and today, she will take it. Let this serve as a reminder toallof you that you donottouch what is mine!”
His attention returns to me, gaze feral and eyes bloodshot.
“I will not do it,” I growl past the tight feeling encircling my throat.
“Then what is his life worth to you?”
